[master345]

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/l...2-pdt.html

This is £150 laptop with Celeron 3050 Braswell plus an AMD card.

Questions:
Can it output 1920x1080 to a TV or would it be stuck at 1366x768?
Is it comparable to ASRock Beebox as in will it play HEVC and 4K with little issue?
Can it do HD audio?

Any advice would be great and I can pick it up tomorrow.

I want a new Kodi machine that can:
Play 4K down scaled to 1080p
Play HD Audio
Play HEVC files
Connect to 5TB external HDD
Not interested in 3D. Optionally play Blu discs with external Blu drive.

Thanks

[master345]

This one has Intel Atom Z3735F. Which is better, this or the braswell for HEVC, HD Audio and 4K?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-X205TA-11-6...7QPZZHBMQM

UPDATE: This one is comparable to a MINIX Z64 but the Z64 is £40 cheaper.

[Ned Scott]

Not sure if it meets all your requirements, but the first link, the Celeron 3050, will be a much more powerful laptop than the other one.

[wrxtasy]

Have a look at this chart under Braswell, you will find the N3050 has the same Integrated Graphics capabilities with 12 Execution Units as the N3000 and N3150:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In...processors

As such you would think this would be able to output 4K video via HDMI.
A review is here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire...308.0.html

The Intel Atom Z3735F, 4 EU's is definitely inferior when it comes to graphics and 4K HEVC Kodi use.

[noggin]

Yep - the Z3735F-series Baytrail is an older SoC designed primarily for tablets. It also doesn't, currently AFAIK, support HD Audio over HDMI in Linux or Windows. It's mainly used in very small Windows 8.1 with Bing tablets, mini-PCs, HDMI stick PCs etc. No support for HEVC hardware decoding, and the CPU is so low-power it is unlikely to do any decent software decode.

The Braswell in the first laptop is a laptop-type CPU and is a much better bet. Far better GPU, and support for HEVC hardware decoding.

Both will support 1920x1080 HDMI output (that's a non-issue for almost anything with an HDMI output these days)

The Z-series are not reported to be HD Audio streaming on any platform at the moment AFAIK (getting HDMI audio at all under Linux is not straightforward).

The Braswell will, I believe, bitstream HD Audio under Linux, but not sure the Windows drivers are there yet (older Baytrail Laptop CPUs - as distinct from Tablet series - only output HD audio with a very specific driver combination AIUI - which is a bit of a black art to get working?)

Both series will output multichannel PCM in Windows AIUI - so software lossless decode of HD Audio COULD be possible in Windows on both chips once it is in mainline (think only Dolby True HD decode is currently, with DTS HD decode mainly in the Raspberry Pi experimental builds)

[master345]

I understand the Braswell may not be able to do HD Audio even in Windows but is it easy to get an output resolution of 1920x1080 on my Tv if the laptop spec says 1366x768?

[noggin]

I understand the Braswell may not be able to do HD Audio even in Windows but is it easy to get an output resolution of 1920x1080 on my Tv if the laptop spec says 1366x768?

Yes. Both chips support dual display. I've run a 1GB/32GB Z-series Linx 7 tablet (which cost me around £40 and has a 1280x800 internal LCD) running Windows 10 (upgraded from 8.1 with Bing) with a Micro HDMI output 1920x1080 into TVs. When you run both outputs simultaneously Kodi frame drops a bit, but when you disable the LCD in the tablet and just run the external HDMI output it is fine.

I haven't run a Braswell laptop - but all the mini-PCs I've seen with Braswell support multiple displays and I think it is core functionality of the CPU/GPU.

The laptop display resolution is largely irrelevant when considering the HDMI output as long as you don't clone the HDMI with the LCD.

[master345]

Thanks all for your help.

[fritsch]

I understand the Braswell may not be able to do HD Audio even in Windows but is it easy to get an output resolution of 1920x1080 on my Tv if the laptop spec says 1366x768?

It does not work _in_ windows. It works on Linux just fine.

[noggin]

I understand the Braswell may not be able to do HD Audio even in Windows but is it easy to get an output resolution of 1920x1080 on my Tv if the laptop spec says 1366x768?

It does not work _in_ windows. It works on Linux just fine.

fritsch is, I believe, talking about HD Audio. 1920x1080 output in Windows is likely to be fine.